Suspect in Murder of Girl Is Flown to County, Jailed

Richard Lucio DeHoyos, arrested in Texas in connection with the slaying of 9-year-old Nadia Puente of Santa Ana, was flown to Orange County and booked into jail Tuesday.

DeHoyos, 31, who since his arrest has told newspaper and TV reporters in San Antonio that he killed the school girl in a Santa Ana hotel room, had little to say upon his arrival at John Wayne Airport.

The man who was the focus of an intense police investigation walked off an American Airlines flight in handcuffs, wearing a dress shirt and dark trousers. After shrugging off questions from a news reporter, he said only, “I need an attorney.”

DeHoyos was brought to Orange County after he had waived extradition. He was accompanied on the flight by two Santa Ana police investigators. Security was tight at the airport Tuesday as DeHoyos and the two investigators were met by a third plainclothes police officer who quickly guided them to an unmarked police car.

After being booked in Orange County Jail about 1:40 p.m. on suspicion of murder, DeHoyos was assigned an Orange County public defender, David Biggs, for his defense.

DeHoyos is scheduled to be arraigned today in Orange County Municipal Court. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr. has been assigned to prosecute the case.

The murder victim, a fourth-grade student at Diamond Elementary School, was abducted March 20 on her way home from school. Her body, which was found a day later, had been stuffed into a trash can in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, she had been sexually molested and killed by asphyxiation caused by pressure against her chest.

DeHoyos was “cooperative” during questioning by police Tuesday, police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said.

Police have said there is physical evidence that “positively links” DeHoyos to the girl’s murder, but they have declined to elaborate.

On more than one occasion, DeHoyos told San Antonio reporters that he had killed Nadia because he was angry while “on drugs,” specifically cocaine. He was quoted as saying that he “drowned her” in a bathtub at a Santa Ana hotel.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has said that DeHoyos’ statement that he drowned the girl is not inconsistent with the autopsy findings.

The suspect has been described as a drifter who has lived in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and other parts of Orange County during the last few years.

DeHoyos’ grandmother, who lives in Los Angeles, said her grandson left Los Angeles for San Antonio to visit his mother about 2 weeks ago.

Thomas said security surrounding DeHoyos will be tight because of an earlier jail escape. DeHoyos was housed in a one-person cell at Orange County Jail.

DeHoyos was first arrested Saturday by Santa Ana and San Antonio police at a taco stand in San Antonio. But he escaped the next day, police said, after wadding up a piece of paper and sticking it in the lock to his cell to prevent the lock from catching.

He was arrested again less than an hour later sitting on a bus bench a few blocks from the jail.